1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a dot matrix printer comprising a printing unit for printing a printing material to be printed and a feed area for feeding the printing material to the printing unit. In the feed area, a gap is formed through which the printing material to be fed is transported. In a print mode, the printing unit prints the printing material, whereas in a feed mode the printing material can be fed from the feed area to the printing unit and the printing material is not printed. The dot matrix printer is used in particular in banks for printing saving account passbooks and in forwarding agencies for printing receipts.
2. Discussion
Known dot matrix printers for printing passbooks and receipts have an input unit via which the passbooks or receipts are manually fed into a feed area. This feed area is limited by two limiting elements between which a gap is formed. The passbooks or receipts are transported through this gap and are fed to the printing unit. During printing of the passbooks or receipts, significant noise inevitably occurs when using a dot matrix printer. Therefore, in the case of the known dot matrix printers the housing of the dot matrix printer is insulated accordingly to keep the noise pollution for the operator as low as possible. What is problematic with the known dot matrix printers is, however, that noise can still escape to a considerable extent through the input opening, which can make the handling of the dot matrix printer annoying for the operator.